Alexander Wong says he loves anything to do with imaging.

That passion, plus the $140,000 the Waterloo systems design engineering professor received from the Ontario government’s Early Researcher Awards program, are going a long way to support his work developing computerized approaches to more accurately and effectively diagnose prostate cancer in its early stages. 
      
Wong says while imaging is slowly becoming an integral part of prostate cancer screening, existing systems require large volumes of imaging data and highly-specialized uroradiologists to spend considerable time interpreting the results.

The goal of his research is to address those limitations through the development of unique MRI-imaging technologies and advanced computer-aided clinical decision support platforms to aid clinicians and radiologists in more efficiently detecting and localizing prostate cancer.

“The success of this research would pave the way for minimally invasive focal therapies that allow for greatly improving patient recovery time,” he says.

Wong, a co-director of the university's Vision and Image Processing Research Group, was one of three Waterloo Engineering researchers to be supported in last week’s round of ERAs. The other faculty members recognized with funding were Zhongwei Chen and Boxin Zhao, both of chemical engineering.

Chen is working on a solution to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels by creating nanomaterials that could improve fuel-cell performance and reduce their cost. Zhao is developing new adhesion technologies, based on geckos’ foot pads, which will help increase the province’s profile in the biotechnology industry. 
 
Wong says he chose his area of research because of the potential impact it can have on the health and well-being of men. Prostate cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer death in Canadian men, with over 25,000 estimated new cases each year.

He adds that his findings could be applied to other types of cancers, which may have a widespread impact on the health of the global population. He expects his research to go through clinical validation within the next two years.

Wong, who started as an engineering faculty member last year, was already a familiar face on campus. He completed all three of his engineering degrees at Waterloo and was the university’s Alumni Gold Medal winner in 2010 for the year’s top PhD graduate.

He enjoys being on the other side of the classroom now. “Students really shine when they are able to associate what they are learning with real-world engineering problems and challenges," he says. "It gives me great joy when I see them entering the workplace and applying what they have learned here."